Morals and Ethics

I have always insisted that there is a difference between morals and ethics, and it’s always confused people. To most people, morals and ethics are the same thing, even though they are actually opposites. Morals are spiritual standards, imposed by an external force (God, usually), which are subject to change (whenever the imposing force decides such changes are expedient) and can even conflict with each other. Ethics are practical standards, imposed by internal forces (personal integrity and reason), which rarely change and are consistent.

Take the issue of abortion: Morals (in this case, standards imposed by religious leaders) stress the quantity of life; ethics stress the quality of life. “Right-to-life” people are moral, but they are not particularly ethical--they protest abortion on the principle that abortion is murder, but it’s okay to bomb abortion clinics and murder doctors. They picket clinics in the name of defending the right of unwanted babies to be born regardless of the situation they will be born into. Yet these same people who insist on the “right-to-life” of every unborn child, generally support capital punishment and engaging in wars. To me, there is no difference between the taking of a life whether it’s done by a doctor, the State, or the Armed Forces. Ethics (standards imposed by personal integrity) stress that only those who have to bear the responsibility for their decisions have the right to make those decisions. They realize that forcing women to have children they can’t properly provide for, either financially or emotionally, condemns both the mother and the child (and whatever children she may already have) to a life of unnecessary suffering.

But it’s not really about the value of life itself; it’s about being able to impose your will on other people. The Church tells you a particular thing is wrong, rather than allowing you to decide for yourself, based on your individual circumstances.

Look at any “values” issue and think about the agenda it truly serves. Is it moral, or is it ethical? Is it based in a religious ideology trying to enforce a spiritual authority, or on personal integrity and the right of every individual to make their own decisions in matters that affect their own lives? Do you really want the government interfering in your intimate, personal matters? Once you give it that power, it will never give it up--what happens when it decides that you and your group (whatever it is) is a problem and needs to be eliminated? What if the government decides that your church is a cult? What if the government decides it should choose who you marry, what schools your children can go to (or whether you can have children at all), where you will work and for what wage? What if it decides to pass an amendment nullifying the second amendment because it’s too dangerous to allow ordinary citizens to own guns--after all, the terrorists might steal them and use them to harm us!!

I had a very strange dream several years ago and it is just as clear today:

I was in a baseball stadium in my home town. The stadium was full of people wearing buttons that said “Us.” All across the field where teams used to play baseball, were crosses, to which were nailed people wearing buttons that said “Them.” These crosses were set on fire and allowed to burn to ashes while the people nailed to them screamed out their agony and the people in the stands cheered with forced approval. From time to time, men in long black robes would go through the stands, rounding up everyone whose “Us” button had magically changed to a “Them” button. New crosses would be set up and people nailed to them and set alight. This went on and on until the stands were empty and only the men in the long black robes were left. They promptly began trying to kill each other.

It took me a minute of thinking to figure out what the dream meant. If you haven’t figured it out, it’s simply this: when you live in an Us-or-Them society, sooner or later, everyone is one of “Them,” including you.